It is undeniable that social media marketing is becoming more and more valuable.

The top five most successful social media platforms to market on include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube.

However, it’s important to know exactly what social media platform you should invest and use to benefit your company or business the most. It shouldn’t be a case of “put it on all the socials”. In the world of competitive marketing, you have to be smart. When you target the wrong audience on the wrong social media platform, you waste your time and money.

Social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are becoming increasingly popular as marketers turn to more visual marketing.

In this year’s Social Media Marketing Industry Report conducted by Social Media Examiner, it was found that marketers want to increase their visual marketing for the future. The report found that 67% of marketers plan on increasing their YouTube marketing and 42% of marketers plan to increase their use of Instagram. Why? Visuals can do wonders for the correct demographic. 64% of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 29. Promoting walkers and canes may not be the most successful use of social media marketing for Instagram, while promoting clothing and shoes just might be.

The Thrive Hive found that the benefits of Instagram marketing is engagement and targeting. Pinterest Marketing benefits include website traffic and imagery that provides visual inspiration for consumers. Facebook continues to be a dominating marketing power with 1.86 billion monthly users. Their marketing benefits include targeting abilities, analytics and direct contact with consumers. Twitter also leads the marketing pack with 313 million monthly users. Twitter marketing benefits include deeper connections with consumers and direct communication capabilities.

Marketing also has a lot to do with what kind of business you are and what your end goal is. Things to think about before promoting is what is your target audience? Males? Females? College students? Are you business to business, business to consumer? These questions will help guide you towards the right social media for you.

On MarieTV the author of “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook,” Gary Vaynerchuk, knows exactly what type of content does well on specific types of social media platforms. Gifs do really well on Tumblr so use that but link your product somehow to it. If you’re promoting a story use the seven best quotes that you have on Facebook and link your story.

Putting in the work behind every single post pays off. Caring about your consumers and the content you put out pays off. These are the things you have to consider when you want to use social media marketing to take your company or business to the next level.